“Get him on the phone,” Gabe said. “We need to know anything he can tell us about the ransom demand and the instructions for the drop. Once we know the specifics we can coordinate our rescue operation to go down before any money is exchanged.”
…
“Who are you?” Agent Danny Giancarelli had a smart and no-nonsense voice tinged with the barest hint of his Italian roots. Gabe liked him instantly. “What exactly is your stake in this?”
“Same as yours,” Gabe said. “I want Bryson Van Amee home with his family, safe and sound. Name’s Bristow. I’m CO of HumInt Consulting, Inc’s hostage rescue team.”
“Who hired you? Not the family,” Giancarelli said without a shred of doubt.
“No, not the family, but I can’t divulge my client’s name.”
And he didn’t particularly want to admit Van Amee’s greedy insurance company hired him because they didn’t want to pay out the kidnap and ransom insurance that Van Amee no doubt paid a ridiculous premium to have. Especially not with Audrey sitting right beside him, listening intently to every word. She’d come into the room midway through the team’s briefing, looking tired, tousled, and worried, and sat beside him like she had every right to be there. Which she did.
A few eyebrows arched when he laced his fingers with hers and unsubtly raised her hand to his lips, staking his claim, but everyone kept their mouths shut. Smart men.
At first, her presence had been a comfort, a balm soothing the distress he hadn’t realized he’d been feeling since he woke. Now, as he spoke with Giancarelli on the phone, having her beside him felt more like a heavy weight on his shoulders. It was stupid, but he kind of liked the knight in shining armor fantasy she’d built up around him and hated to tarnish it, but he couldn’t mince words with Giancarelli either. Not if he wanted to get the information he needed to save her brother.
“And my client doesn’t matter,” he added. “Our end goal is the same.”
Giancarelli said nothing.
Since he didn’t hang up, Gabe took that as agreement and continued, “You don’t believe paying the ransom will save Bryson’s life any more than I do.”
Giancarelli sighed. “What I believe doesn’t matter much around here.”
“It does on my end.”
“Yes,” the agent answered after a second’s pause. “I think Marcus is right. By sending that money to the HTs, we’re condemning Mr. Van Amee to death.”
“If you give me whatever information you can about the HTs and the ransom, I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Another pause. “Put Marcus back on.”
Gabe handed the phone to Marcus, who raised it to his ear and said, “Danny.” Then, “Uh-huh. Uh-huh.” He glanced up at Gabe then said definitively, “Yes,” probably in answer to a question about Gabe’s legitimacy. He listened some more. “Well, funny story there. When I’m stateside I’ll buy you a beer and tell ya all about it.” After a moment, he nodded and handed the phone back to Gabe. “He’s willing to hear you out, boss.”
Giancarelli said, “What do you want from me?”
“We’re about ninety-five percent sure where Van Amee’s being held.” Gabe relaxed against the tilted head of the hospital bed. His stitches pulled as he reached for the notebook Harvard had brought him and flipped to a clean page. “We just don’t know what we’re dealing with as far as opposition and what our timetable looks like. You’ve been in contact with the hostage takers, correct? What can you tell me about them?”
“I’ve only talked to one,” Giancarelli began. “He has me call him Angel.”
Gabe wrote “Angel” in the notebook and circled it twice. As in, Angel Rivera, Jacinto’s brother. Was Jacinto just using his brother’s name, or was the FBI dealing with the man himself? If Angel was involved, things could get messy fast. Jesus Christ. “What’s his state-of-mind like?”
“He puts on a good front,” Giancarelli said, “but you ask me, he’s nervous. He doesn’t strike me as a professional.”
Which didn’t jibe with what they knew about Angel Rivera, who had at least ten kidnappings under his belt that Harvard had been able to dig up, and possibly more that hadn’t been attributed to him.
Gabe added a question mark next to Angel’s name even though he was now about ninety-eight percent sure that Jacinto was acting on his own, using his brother’s name. “What about accomplices?”
“Thing is, I’ve only heard one other voice in the background…”